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19 September 2013

The Other side September Edition #1 - 2 Duelist Packs and V-Jump Edition 10

And V is back with another edition of "what's planned in the OCG right now?".

The TCG has been saturated at the moment with Tins, a Structure Deck and Astral Packs. And not counting the lame overstock products (no, I'm NOT interested in Value Boxes or Duelist Pack Special Editions) and the Deluxe Edition of Judgment of the Light; it will be until half of October (Joey's World) and the beginning of November (Shadow Specters) until there's another rush of new stuff in our shelves.

And since the last few days showed us a lot of info on the upcoming OCG YGO products (yeah, stuff happens when new V-Jumps are in stores), I thought it would be the best if I listed it all, part by part. This part: The two upcoming Duelist packs:

Duelist Pack Yuma 2

First off, Duelist Pack Yuma 2 will be released this week in the OCG. This pack has 30 cards and has some very interesting reprints... oh, who am I lying to? Yuma only plays crappy cards. The only interesting reprint is Cardcar D, which the OCG didn’t have a reprint of as of yet (and maybe Excalibur, but that is technically not even a Yuma-card). There's still a few card spots unconfirmed, so Konami can still add some amazing reprints in there, but it's doubtful that interestig reprints like Big Eye would be in here.

The new cards in this Duelist Pack aren't that impressive either. The only cards worth mentioning are Swordsman of the Sealing Swords & Toy Knight.

“When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack: You can Special Summon this card from your hand, then destroy that attacking monster if this card's DEF is higher than that monster's ATK. An Xyz Monster that was Summoned using this card as Xyz Material gains this effect: *Once per turn, this card cannot be destroyed by battle.”

This swordsman is a Lv. 8 Light Warrior with 0 attack and 2400 defense. If you play other Lv. 8 monsters, this card will easily help you create rank 8 XYZ (like Felgrand or Tachyon Dragon). And in a favorite deck of mine (Photon Lightray), this card has a great sync with Lightray Gearfried.

On the other hand, Toy Knight’s effect is as follows: “Cannot be Special Summoned from the Deck. If your opponent controls more monsters than you do, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). When this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 "Toy Knight" from your hand.”

The first clause is to prevent abuse with Machine Duplication (it’s only 200 attack). It’s a mini Cyber Dragon that will mesh well with Gadget decks, due to it being a lv. 4 machine.

Other new cards are:

Gogogo Golem Golden form: a Gogogo version of Great Maju Garzett (lame).

Dododo Witch: A good support monster for an archetype with only a few (mediocre) cards.

Dododo Gasser: A card which is only useful when combined with the previous mentioned Witch.

Bakudan: A hand-trap beast that blows up XYZ without XYZ materials (anime effect, unknown if it's going to be changed or not).

Soul Strike: A trap whose effect reminded me somewhat of that effect of the Winged Dragon of Ra, but is so limited in use it's not going to be used.

Half Unbreak: A watered-down version of Waboku; which was necessary ever since Waboku got hit by the banlist, right?[sorry, I couldn't leave the sarcasm after all].

Duelist Pack Kastle/Kamishiro siblings

A month after Yuma's Duelist Pack is sold out (lol, as if), the OCG gets a duelist Pack that focuses on Shark & his sister Rio. Read between the lines: Sharks and WATER Winged Beasts.

Only half of this set has been revealed, but it already includes a few interesting cards.

The Number collectors will like that there are 2 new Number cards in here (No. 73 Abyss Splash & No. 94: Crystal Zero), whose main effect is raising/lowering attack. But other than Number collectors, nobody is going to want these two, because there are so many better Rank 5’s out there.

MORE interesting, is that continuous Spell card “Amulet of the Water Deity”. That card reads as follows:

“WATER monsters you control cannot be destroyed by your opponent's card effects. Send this card to the Graveyard during your opponent's 3rd End Phase after activation.”

Sounds kind of broken in Mermails and Fish decks, or am I overestimating this card? Activate this card, loop with Mermails to get bossy monsters on the field without worries and go for the win? No Torrential Tribute, Mirror Force or Dark Hole to stop you?

Other new (revealed) cards are:

Double-Fin Shark: Upon its normal summon, you can special summon a Lv. 3 or 4 fish from your grave. Lv. 4 means easy Bahamut Shark, while the only Lv. 3 you want is Fishborg Archer (to get into Gungnir). Not a bad card, but quite limited in its use.

Silent Angler: A card that (at first sight) seems interesting in Fish OTK decks, because it special summons itself from the hand when you control a water monster.

Guard Penguin: A non-Aqua Penguin with a mediocre effect? Shame on you, Konami!

Depth Shark: One of the many attempts to make decent Lv. 5 Water monsters, while failing in the end.

Saber Shark: A car whose effect is totally different from the anime (in a good way). Its effect has been changed to level manipulation. This card makes it easy to vary between Rank 3's to 5's in Fish decks (yeah, those last two words make this card extremely limited in its usage, though).

Full Armored Black Ray Lancer: Interesting upgrade for Rank 3 WATER XYZ, though I can't see much use for it at the moment, since the original Lancer is hardly used. The only target used is AbyssTrite and you don't want to overlay her for an "upgrade".

On the reprint department, the only interesting reprint (at the moment) that catches my eye is Bahamut Shark (a promo reprint in OCG). For the rest Shark's cards ARE just as crappy as Yuma's. So I'm not expecting a lot of the "leftover spots".

"This king requires better servants!"

V-Jump Edition 10

Wow, another Jump pack, two months after the previous one? Similarly to last year, the end of the year is like shoving promo's through everybody's throat. But while previous Jump pack included original cards (as in non-manga/anime); the pack with next month's V-Jump is once again focused on Yuma-cards (oh god WHY?), and includes ANOTHER version of Utiopia (seriously, WHY?).

These don't seem familiar cards, other that they're Dododo/Gogogo/Zexal Weapon. That's because they're manga cards and haven't appeared yet (they'll probably be used in this & next month's issue, together with this pack).

Afterword

For the TCG, we’ll probably see the Duelist Pack cards next spring in another Premium tin (TCG-Konami hates Duelist Packs, since they hardly ever have good sales (ref: the Duelist Pack Overstock Edition)).

Note: The names of these cards are "fan" interpretations of the OCG names. They are bound to change if they appear in the TCG.

Next up: The new Duelist sets and the game promo's for the 3DS game. Until then, V out.